I Passed!!!!
 

This may not be the right place for this, but, for years...I'd been stymied by the Morse code requirement for a Ham license. Well, with that requirement now history for upper classes of licenses, I dove in with both feet today. The local Ham radio club was conducting testing...and I passed both the Technician and General Class tests about an hour ago! Yaaaay! Even took the Extra test since I was there and figured "no guts, no glory". Got about 60% there...time to dig out the books and brush up on my theory. But...passed the General!!! Now to rehab some of the vintage Ham gear I've got stashed and get ready to generate some fine-sounding plate-modulated AM!

Congratulations!:beerchug:

I'm jealous! That's great news! Of course, you'll need to go all am phone. Well, we might let you do SSB, as long as it's all tube!

Don't think I want much of any silicon in my shack, that's for sure. I still have the gear I bought with paper route money back in '65...a Knight-Kit T-60 transmitter I built and a National NC-109 receiver. The T-60 (though it is screen modulated...still AM, though) should come back to life with a fistfull of caps...the National has some problems in the bandswitch area that could be vexing. Instead of the National, I have an RME-45 from 1946 that is a strong performer...a fistfull of caps and she'll be singin'. The junkbox contains most everything to build a 250 watt plate-modulated AM transmitter, as well as most of the stuff needed to put together an amplifier capable of 800-1,000 watts. SSB? Maybe. A friend who's a former ham has a Kenwood transceiver he'd sell to me reasonable...probably should have that capability as well.
Get your ticket! Go to www.qrz.com and click on "sample tests"...you'll need to start with Technician, then progress to General (and Extra class if you feel brave.) I started with a General Class study guide, then went to QRZ and kept taking the sample tests til I felt ready. Can't wait for my first QSO!

Congratulations John! I have wanted to get a Ham-license since I was a kid. I enjoy listening to Ham radio on my SW radio...instead.

... _ congrats

Better'n I've ever been able to do..Code just totally baffles me, for some reason.

Sandy...NO MORE CODE!!! I had the same problem...never could get past 3-4 words per minute. But...the code requirement is GONE!!! You have more than half of a fine Ham station with that R390 of yours, and good vintage AM transmitters are readily available. The theory is relatively basic...it's knowing the various band allocations, operating procedures, etc. that require some study. Again...go to www.qrz.com and click on "sample tests" just for fun...start with Technician and work up. They have sample tests with questions from the current question pools, and, if you get one wrong, you can go back and try another answer till you get it right. You might be able to score in the 80s without a study guide...but if you want, check www.arrl.org for their selection of study guides. You'd be a perfect Ham, Sandy...a ragchewer par excellence!!

I've been dreaming about becoming a ham for over 50 years. One thing led to another, time goes by, you know the drill.

Then, everything was solid state, and the magic was just gone.

Now, there's eBay, and I can find anything I ever wanted. And now I find this thread, and I went to QRZ.com just for fun. I've never studied one word of the FCC regs, ever. So I took the Tech test, twice, and scored 86.7% both times!!

Maybe there's hope!:D

About the only reason a person couldn't get their license would be where they live. Single family home or rural usually works well, although association bylaws can present a problem in some communities. A flag pole used as a "stealth" vertical can be a solution. There's numerous "stealth" methods for getting on the air from apartments, dorm rooms and the like...sometimes by dropping a fine wire off a balcony or connecting it to fishing line tossed through a nearby tree. And indoor antennas can work surprisingly well on the HF ham bands. Can't forget mobile and portable operation, either.

No code means a LOT of us who lusted after "the ticket" but couldn't get it will finally be able to explore that fascinating hobby.

It came!!
 

Forgot to check Saturday's mail...opened the box and there it was: FCC return address and all! I'm now licensed as KD0DQZ! (In case you're unfamiliar, the third character is the digit zero indicating the callsign area I live in.) I had thought about changing my call right away, but Unca Charlie handed me a pretty good one...think I'll stick with it. Dug out a 10 meter SSB mobile rig I had, and started experimenting with a simple ground plane antenna made from wood n' wire. We'll see if she'll load up into a homebrew antenna like that.

My son passed the Morse Code but failed the rest.

Apparently he's been using Morse Code with his friends to cheat on tests for years. Wouldn't work in this venue.

thats awesome..congrats

Congrats KD0DQZ!
 

Congratulations, and welcome to a very fine hobby!

I was first licensed in 1972 as WN8NHV. Got my Technician ticket three years later, and the General a decade after that. Been on the air ever since. My first station was a Heathkit DX40/Hallicrafters SX101 with the transmitter crystal-controlled (we hams used to say "rockbound") on 3750 kHz (3.75 MHz, which was the top of the 80-meter Novice band). My antenna at the time was a 25-foot loaded vertical. I'll never forget my first contact, with a ham in South Bend, Indiana. I got as far as giving him my location and signal report, but after that my mind just went blank.

My Technician license arrived in mid-1975. Started out on six meters (again, rockbound on 50.35 MHz with a Heathkit "Sixer" six-meter transceiver). I won't forget my first QSO (well, half of one) I had on six. I had just set up my little Heathkit rig on a shelf in my bedroom and was using, believe it or not, a hank of wire for an antenna...but the darn thing worked. Boy, did it ever: The first thing I heard in response to my first CQ was station WA0SDK in South Dakota! Don't know if he heard me answer him or not, but no matter. That first 6-meter contact (sorta, kinda, as again I have a feeling it was only half of one; the other station may not have heard me at all) is something I will not soon forget, even though it's been well over three decades ago.

The summer of 1985 was when I upgraded to General. I had already passed the 13-wpm code test from the first time I almost passed the written exam. "Almost" is right: by now the FCC had switched to multiple-choice tests based on a 5-minute code message; answer seven of ten of the questions correctly and you pass. Well, the first time I wound up failing by just one question, but the second time I went in, a month later, I had been studying code diligently by listening to nightly code-practice sessions from ARRL's headquarters station W1AW, and I was ready. I'll say: The second time I took that test I passed, missing only one question out of ten for ninety percent. That did it. Several weeks later I looked in my mailbox, found my new General ticket, WB8NHV, and have been having a ball with this hobby ever since. Been though three or four HF transceivers, a couple of 2-meter rigs, two of which, both portable handhelds or HTs, I still have and still use. One of the HTs, a Yaesu FT-207R synthesized rig, is now over 25 years old [bought it new in 1980] and still works great; the other is an Icom IC-T22A synthesized handheld, several years old, which I purchased from an old-time amateur in North Carolina several years ago. My HF rig is an Icom IC-725, 100 watts, nine bands, which I won as a hamfest prize in 1991. (Got rid of the tube-type rigs when I moved in late 1999--no room in this apartment for so many rigs, especially since I have a small collection of antique/vintage radios in the bedroom.)

Since I live in an apartment, I have antenna restrictions (nothing allowed outside the building), but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the heck out of this hobby every bit as I've been since I was first licensed. I bought a Barker and Williamson AP-10A apartment portable antenna several years ago, set it up in my bedroom, and it worked. I am a member of a local radio club that has a weekly 10-meter net on 28.450 MHz, so I fired up the rig into the portable antenna one evening and decided to try to check in. It took me a while (the net control station had a rotating beam antenna that was pointed exactly 180 degrees away from me [!]), but eventually I was able to check in with a decent signal once the net control swung his beam around to me.

Again, welcome to a wonderful hobby, one I'm sure you'll enjoy once you get your station equipment set up. I've been in it over 35 years and have no intention of giving it up any time soon--or at all.

BTW: I feel the same as you about my callsign. Wouldn't dream of changing it now.


73 (best of regards),

There were a bunch of screwballs I used to listen to on 3868. They were kinda like here-Funny, irreverent, outspoken. They'd get in "radio wars" w/the knotheads on 3898 & sometimes make raids on 3914, too. There would be "trolls" who would come in, or QRP guys that you could barely hear. The trolls were generally shown no mercy... The 3868 gang got written up in PopCom as being the WORST bunch in ham radio- they'd belch & fart in their mikes, & just generally act uncouth. But on Christmas, they'd all call up the FCC office & wish 'em "Merry Christmas !"

Awright, Sandy...you're next!! The gauntlet has been thrown down...time to get on qrz.com and start taking sample tests! It'll be a little while before I actually get on the air...the 10 meter SSB rig may work with a homebrew antenna..but I really want my first contact to be on 3885kHz AM. Gotta get caught up on some house projects before I start stringing antennas...kind of a deal I have with my wife...and kinda non-negotiable as well.

I had given thought to changing my call in case the FCC saddled me with something weird...I'd wanted to switch to my uncle's now-lapsed call. But, since he's now Professor Emeritus instead of just plain ol' Professor, he may have time for hammin' again and it would be nice if he could get his old call back.

I got my ham license (tech) in 1976. Back then you had to go to the local FCC field office. For me that was in NYC. 5 WPM code and general written for tech back then. I expected to have trouble with the code, but easier on the written. ReEverse happened, aced the code but barely passed the written (a little embarrising for a BSEE college student). Maybe that's why they gave me WA2ISE, as it's all dits on the suffix (.. ... .). :-) More likely it was random, but I understand that the FCC was recycling expired callsigns back in 1976. I once found in an old callbook someone in upstate NY had my callsign years before.

Later on my license became to be known as "tech plus", as the no-code tech came into being. "plus" meaning I did the 5WPM code.

Then in 2000, the FCC changed the code requirement for genreal and extra to just 5 WPM. I already had done the general written back in 1976, so I only needed to pass the advanced and extra writtens to get my extra class license. Did that in 2000, kept my old callsign, got myself a Kenwood HF rig and got on HF (SW). Ten meters was hot back then, and I could routinely contact hams in Japan on ten. Another time I contacted someone in Antartica. These all with crude dipole antennas tossed into the crawl spaces above my 2nd floor (top floor) apartment.

There's various AM nets on HF you can find and join.

Congratulations and your post reminds me of a question I have thought to ask for a long time. Do you talk to any rigs down this way? I have been trying to find out if there is a local licensing authority for Mexico but have not been successful to date...

Thanks and again, congrats...

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